This guy gets a buck. 

Tax Dollar Watch

It was one thing when Bush spent his well earned campaign money on staged "town hall" fakery full of carefully-screened citizens instructed to fawn all over him while he stumbled through awkward explanations of his policies.

It's quite another when they're doing this on the public dime.

Yeah, you know that huge chunk of money they take out of your paycheck every month for Uncle Sam? Bush is spending it on stacked events like this where he tries to sell us his loser non-plan for Social Security and hires folks to kick out liberal citizens. Ahem, liberal tax paying citizens.

For more detail, Kos gets letters.

There is a part of you that will say "This is fun."

Stop by the Whiskey Bar and shake hands with another Bush Republican.

GOP Dowdifies Its Constituents

What do Republicans do when America is against their President's non-plan to privatize social security?

They lie.

The Republican party has reached the pinnacle of desparation. (Watch them quote me as saying "The Republican party has reached the pinnacle.")

Happy Easter

I often lament the upsurge in religious zealotry among the right wing in this country. But I also share something with them. I want our nation to be Christian. And by that, I mean that I hope the actions of America throughout the world will be Christ-like. The lion who was also a lamb.

the lion refers to His second coming
the lamb refers to His first coming
the lion speaks of His majesty
the lamb speaks of His meekness
as lion He is sovereign
as lamb He is Savior
as lion He is Judge
as lamb He is judged
the lion speaks of the government of God
the lamb speaks of the grace of God

Do as I say, not as I do

So DeLay's father passed on in a similar fashion as Schiavo will soon according to a recent report. I understand people change views as life moves forward, but it appears to me that Mr. DeLay is an extremely unprincipled man. Here are a few excerpts:

A family tragedy that unfolded in a Texas hospital during the fall of 1988 was a private ordeal — without judges, emergency sessions of Congress or the debate raging outside Terri Schiavo's Florida hospice."The situation faced by the congressman's family was entirely different than Terri Schiavo's," said a spokesman for the majority leader, who declined requests for an interview."The only thing keeping her alive is the food and water we all need to survive. His father was on a ventilator and other machines to sustain him," said Dan Allen, DeLay's press aide.There were also these similarities: Both stricken patients were severely brain-damaged. Both were incapable of surviving without medical assistance. Both were said to have expressed a desire to be spared from being kept alive by artificial means. And neither of them had a living will.

Read yourself and spin if you must, but I just report, you decide.

Happy Easter

Sean, one of my closest friends landed in Baghdad at some time on Wednesday. I reflected on this for some time the weeks preceeding his departure and definitely was uneasy about his decision to volunteer to serve in Iraq. Sean is an officer with Navy Jag and is a good Democrat. He will no doubt be doing important things in his position and I commend brave folks like him for their willingness to serve. His presence in Iraq puts the Iraq War in a different perspective for me personally, but it doesn't change the strength of my fondness for every member of the armed forces. To all of you great and brave Americans, I pray you all return safely. And Sean, if you are keeping up with 2GL, see you in Eastern Washington for some fly-fishing in September. Happy Easter to our troops and to all the loyal readers of 2GL. Don't forget to go to services today, I plan on catching some beers shortly after mass this afternoon myself.

The GOP Knows What's Best For You

Sullivan, always the sanest voice on the right, breaks it down for you:

I'm beginning to wonder if the Republican party will soon oppose the whole concept of an independent judiciary. Just read William Bennett's screed in National Review. It contains the sentence: "It is a mistake to believe that the courts have the ultimate say as to what a constitution means." Bennett and his co-author argue that Jeb Bush should send in state troops to reinsert the feeding tube and break the law if necessary. Screw the science. Screw the court system. Screw the law. I disagree with Jonah that this is a minor spat with no long-term consequences. We are looking directly at the real face of contemporary Republicanism. Sane, moderate, thoughtful people are watching this circus and will not soon forget it.

He's right.

And what does the Republican party stand for anymore? The sanctity of marriage? Nope, sorry Mr. Schiavo. State's rights? Nope, sorry Florida. Smaller government? Nope, biggest growth in decades. Fiscal sanity? Nope, record deficits. So... what was it again?

Keep the Backlash Alive at all costs

Take a look at the polls alone or talk to the majority of Americans and you will see that you are in the same mindset as most when it comes to this Schiavo right to life issue. 70% of Americans think it is inappropriate for Congress to get involved in this personal family matter. So why does Congress, a body that surely looks to polls for any issue, insist on getting involved? Maybe I am too skeptical or too jaded, but I simply do not believe the GOP is involved in this case simply because their hearts and conscience will not allow this woman to die without a fight. The GOP is playing this issue just the way they play the abortion issue or the way they hint that the liberal media is destructing our culture. (don’t mind that media is driven my marketing and corporate profits, not “liberals”.) The GOP is simply feeding the cultural class war, a war that cannot be won and really has no identifiable culprit. The culprit has been identified nonetheless by the far right as this superman like, and always powerful, institution called “liberals”. They are responsible, after all, for the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction and the T.O. pre-game sex show.(don’t be concerned with Brittany Spears’ sexual deviance from the age of 17 because small town America likes our Brittany and American Idol) Schiavo is the perfect issue for this feeding of the backlashers. It’s an issue that has no easy answer and any human with a conscience has serious reservations with their stance, no matter where they come down. The ultraconservatives, or backlashers, see this as a black and white issue where no grey exists and this is why you see a mother with her two minor children being arrested today attempting to give water to Ms. Schiavo. (did they no know that because she has no brain activity, she is incapable of drinking fluids through her mouth?)

The great backlash is crucial to the moderate conservatives, as there are always more Democrats than Republicans, and they are willing to exploit people like the Schiavo family to achieve their ends and rally the ultras. Sure, a lot of my Republican friends agree that Congress should not get involved in this case, again, just ask around or look at the polls. But, the governing GOP needs to fire up issues like the right to life and they are more than willing to deal with the idiocy of this group (like crusades against evolution) to secure their power. After all, these ultraconservatives are what ensure their ability to deregulate and tear down organized labor (actions that end up hurting backlashers, duh) to achieve unconscionable profits for big corporation. If you don’t believe me, just look at who stands to, and actually does, profit the most. Will the ultraconservatives look at the polls and think, huh, maybe “red America” doesn’t agree with me on this issue? Probably not, as Rush and Hannity are quick to blame all this on the “liberals”. Once they are assured by their idols, their beliefs are confirmed and validated and remember, there are no grey areas in common America. So what do we do, as Democrats? We become aware of the practices of the GOP and we react appropriately. We quit changing what our party stands for and keep the positions supporting the blue collar workers as we always have. The GOP will fail eventually once the backlashers begin to see that Democrats actually work for the working class and we do not just campaign on that platform.

Dahlia Lithwick Writes It

... so you don't have to.

Evidently, Congress has a secret, super-textual constitutional role as the nation's caped crusaders—its members authorized to leap into phone booths around the world and fly back to Washington in a single bound whenever the "culture of life" is in peril. Republicans acknowledged this weekend that their views on "the sanctity of life" trump even their convictions about federalism. Or, as Tom DeLay put it, when asked how he reconciles this bill with conservative calls to keep the federal government out of state matters, "We, as Congress, have every right to make sure that the constitutional rights of Terri Schiavo are protected, and that's what we're doing."

This congressional authority to simply override years of state court fact-finding brings with it other superpowers, including the power of gratuitous name-calling: Members of Congress unable to pronounce Schiavo's name just last week are denouncing her husband as an adulterer and common law bigamist who withheld proper medical care from her. I wonder what they'd say about my parenting—or yours—if they decided to make a federal case out of every domestic-custody dispute currently resolved in state court proceedings.

Members of Congress have apparently also had super-analytical powers conferred upon them, as well. Senate Majority Leader, and heart surgeon, Bill Frist felt confident last week—after reviewing an hour of videotape—in offering a medical diagnosis of Schiavo's condition, blithely second-guessing the court-appointed neurologists who evaluated her for days and weeks. His colleagues are similarly self-appointed neurological experts. Years of painstaking litigation, assessment, and evaluation by state courts are dismissed by Tom DeLay as the activist doings of a "little judge sitting in a state district court in Florida." Only the most extraordinary levels of congressional hubris could allow a group of elected citizens to substitute their personal medical, legal, and ethical judgments for those of the doctors, judges,
and guardians who have been intimately involved with this heartbreakingly sad case for years.

Take a peek into any chat room . . . and you will find hundreds of individuals who personally know that Terri Schiavo is—despite voluminous testimony by her doctors and her guardians ad litem and the findings of multiple judges—capable of laughter and responsiveness and a full recovery. How do they know these things? The same way their elected representatives do: They watched a video clip. And because anyone who disagrees with the video is a murderer and torturer, the state court judge in this case requires constant police protection: The standard-bearers of the "culture of life" keep threatening to kill him.

Seriously. Go read it.

Living Will

Consider this my living will. If I'm in a persistent vegetative state and on a feeding tube for 15 years, stop keeping me alive already. In fact, if I lapse into a coma and I'm brain damaged, don't even put the damn tube in me. I'm serious. Let there be no doubt about my wishes.

I'm putting that in writing because I don't want to become a "great political issue" for Tom "Captain Ethics" DeLay. (Am I the only one who thinks DeLay looks kind of like Jeff Tweedy?) DeLay, who we Americans look to for moral and legal guidance, calls the decision to allow Terry Schiavo to die a "moral and legal tragedy." Thanks again, Tom, for providing us a moral compass.

Explains a lot,

doesn't it?

How to ruin a pirate joke

I like pirate jokes as much as the next guy. Ok, much more than the next guy. But this is simply retARRRRded.

Anka's Away!

If you have yet to listen to Mr. Paul Anka putting the screws to his band, please do yourself a favor. Now, your reaction to this ass-reaming, from which Anka admits to getting "some satisfaction," may be similar to my ladyfriend's. Last night, when I dimmed the lights, poured some wine, lit candles, and sat back with her to enjoy the soothing sounds of Paul Anka crooning to his band about integrity, she said "he's crazy."

Our good friend Spyder, guest blogging at CC, tends to disagree.

Mr. Anka is clearly making a battle cry to his men with this declaration. He wants the band members to make each other accountable. He wants them to police themselves. This is not an unreasonable request. The band members are all experts at what they do. Further, to make beautiful music they must all work together. They must show integrity in what they do. If the trombone player is lax, perhaps the bassist can say some encouraging words. Anka is the focus, Anka is the star, he doesn’t have time to pay attention to every little detail. Like he says, he doesn’t "have time to ride your asses”!

By suggesting that “we’re not gonna be as strong as our weakest link” Anka is telling the band that they cannot afford to have weak links in his chain. They all have to be responsible and handle their individual jobs with integrity.

Perhaps the bassist can say some encouraging words, indeed. Read the whole thing, then consider hiring Mr. Anka for your next corporate event.

And just in case you think Mr. Anka's integrity kick was only a phase, or as he calls it a "mood", please keep up with the man.

It's not really the environment in our business where people last more than two or three years. I've just tried to keep the integrity and honesty as to what I'm about.

You've got to deal with something fresh that moves you, first keeping the integrity of what you do.

That's just, the f---, ing way, it IS!

I mentioned we at 2GL were asleep at the blog for awhile. Here's what we were up to - - Rudy and I got to share a beer and a day of perfect powder at Northstar in Tahoe.  

Do You Get Full Value On Your Money?

I am late on the ball with this, but it's too damn good not to put up here. Plus, I keep listening to it over and over, so I might as well put up the link for myself so I can stop googling to find it:

Listen as Paul Anka, legendary crooner, inspired songwriter ("My Way", Tonight Show theme), beloved by the Japanese, rips into his band after a sub-par performance in Vegas. Why?

"The guy on the end... he was wearing a t-shirt. A T-SHIRT!"

In case you didn't know, THE GUYS GET SHIRTS.

Listen. Then listen again. Pure gems.

"You thought, you thought. You thought, you thought eight things tonight!"

BELATED HAT TIP: Ace, who has really run with it.

SOLICITED BUT DESERVED HAT TIP: T'OD and Spyder, who are on a serious integrity kick.

Dy-no-mite

My lips hurt real bad!

Hey, Anyone Following This?

Huge-normous lobster bites it before making it to freedom:

From NBC:

Big Bubba," as the massive crustacean had been nicknamed, weighed 23 pounds and was 3 feet long. Based on how long it typically takes a lobster to reach eating size -- about 5 to 7 years to grow to a pound -- some estimated Bubba to be 100 years old. But in reality, he was probably closer to 35 or 40 years old, reported WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh.

Bubba showed up at Wholey's Market in the Strip District of Pittsburgh after being caught in the waters off Nantucket last week. Instead of selling him as seafood, Wholey's turned him over to the zoo on Tuesday.

The ultimate destination was supposed to be Ripley's Aquarium in Myrtle Beach, S.C., but Bubba never made it out of Pittsburgh.

Too bad. So sad:(

But wait, it gets better:

Zoo officials said the lobster had not eaten since leaving Wholey's. A necropsy will determine the cause of death.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) had pushed for the lobster to be released back into the Atlantic off the coast of Maine.

Another group calling itself People For Eating Tasty Animals reportedly offered Wholey a hefty price for the lobster.

Man, that's a great name! Notice the acronym it makes.

A Question of Etiquette

Is there something inherently wrong with talking on your cell phone while on the crapper? Please discuss.

ACLU and the Ten Commandments

As I look out my office window, I have a mildly obstructed view of the largest capital building in the United States, seven feet taller than the Capitol in DC. Austin is a progressive liberal city and definitely an anomaly in Texas and much of the south and southwest. In recent days, the city has been watching the most recent attempt to remove a Ten Commandments monument at a state building. The monument is placed on the capitol lawn and has been there for decades and now the United States Supreme Court has to make a decision on its legality. Really, who cares? Why are these ultraliberals wasting "political capital" on this issue? I am not concluding that this is a democrat party attempt at banishing such displays. I do believe that most people who support the banishing of religious displays of this sort are ultraliberals. The issue is that Republicans will be quick to paint this as the democrats up to their nutty ways again picture. This is what the Republicans do, this is at what they are good. I am sure that if I turned on Rush Limbaugh right now, he would be exclaiming that "liberals", which he uses synonymous with democrats, are trying to take away god in American society. My point, choose your battles wisely and realize when you are putting the political gun to your head. These same ultraliberals are the ones who hate Bush, but they are sitting here giving ammunition to the Republicans for 2008. The ACLU is also backing this litigation. I received a membership request in the mail and had my check filled out ready to be sent. After this, I will not join and I think the ACLU does very good things in its attempt to protect our constitutional rights. My issue is not with the religious display, I would prefer it not be there, but again, who cares. Geez, get a grip!

Hope and Hackery

Yes, we at 2GL had a little slumber. And yes, much has happened while we were off doing other things. We've got a trunkfull of things to discuss, including the dark end of Hunter, a favorite writer of both Rudy and me, and the heartening events taking place in the Middle East. Let's start there.

The Middle East. I watched Jon Stewart last night and he voiced a feeling that I share, somewhat: a cognitive dissonance - we disagree with Bush's methodology in Iraq and his unpersuasive rationale for bombing the place, but are overjoyed with what appears to be a quickening climb toward democracy in the Middle East. Stewart and his guest, Nancy Soderbergh, joked about hoping that things didn't go too well over there because Bush would take all the credit for it, etc. I swear to God while I was watching it I thought "watch some right wing a$$holes try to take this seriously and turn it into some "liberals hate freedom" rant. Then, I swear, I thought... nah, no right wing a$$hole would so willingly twist an obvious bit of dark joking.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Sort of wrong (the last guy actually recognizes that it was gallows humor, but writes: "I think Soderbergh was being ironic, just joking around, just using the sort of black humor I enjoy myself on the occasion. But I think, too, she probably meant it.")

These folks don't actually think Democrats are hoping for less freedom or more deaths or more torture or less democracy, they just like to hear each other complain. In fact, they know that no mainstream liberal feels that way. How do we feel? Check out Sullivan's Email of the Day:

In short, what drives Democrats batty is the tendency to take partisan political credit for anything progressive, and to blame anything retrograde on political enemies (both foreign and domestic) who "just don't get it." . . .

And what really kills Democrats is the way that Bush not only takes credit for everything that is going well, and denies any responsibility for things that are going badly . . . it's that he then claims these false credit as the basis for "political capital" to spend on what Democrats feel are
retrograde domestic policies.

The result is that the first reaction any Democrat has to good news in the Middle East (or anywhere else) is to think, "How can Bush be denied political credit for this, since you know he's going to claim it." And the important thing to emphasize is that it is Bush's own political habits that have created this dynamic, and it started right after 9-11.

Am I heartened by what appears to be an emboldened democratic movement in the Middle East? Absolutely. Do I think it's all a result of our invasion of Iraq? I truly do not know. I'll tell you what, though. If Bush had tried to sell his invasion with talk of spreading democracy in the Middle East rather than scaring the hell out of us with exaggerated nuclear boogeymen and trying to connect Iraq with 911, Americans would not have climbed onboard.

Why not?